


Girlfriend

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Enemies, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29094426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: When Landry finds out about Ethan and MC, they pretend they're on a fake date.Set in OH3.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 14





	Girlfriend

She was always so distracting. The longer he knew her, the closer they became, the harder it was to focus on anything else. 

Tonight, she filled his sedan with the heady scent of jasmine and roses, but then she had the audacity to fix her lipstick in the mirror. 

He worried that if she pouted like that one more time, dusky pink lips parted and her soft breath clouding up the glass, he’d have to pull over just to kiss that damn mouth. 

“Why do you keep doing that?” he asked as she ran her fingers through her hair in the mirror. 

“Doing what?”

“Checking the mirror?”

He was staring at her now as he drove, trying hard to stay focused on the road but failing as he watched a blush slowly adorn her cheeks. 

“I’m a little nervous,” she said, “It’s your med school reunion, there’ll be some of the best doctors in the country there.” 

“It’s a lacklustre alumni event hosted by Tobias,” he shot back, “Full of dull over-pampered idiots I have no desire to see again. Besides you were the one who was intent on us going.”

“I know… I just.”

She turned to him, her eyes wide and vibrant. 

“Every time I go to these things I’m Dr Valentine. I’ve never been to one of them as your…”

Ethan’s heartbeat quickened as she paused, his throat constricting as he watched her search for the word they were both hoping she’d say. 

But she picked another, a term she’d heard him use for them more and more often. 

“…significant other.”

He turned back to the road with a lazy smile. 

“I already said how beautiful you look earlier, you should have believed me.”

“Doesn’t count if we’re naked,” she smirked. 

“Then let me say it again. You’re beautiful, Eve. You surpass me in every way.”

Arrestingly beautiful, Ethan thought, with a final lingering glance. 

Across the car, he took her hand in his and squeezed tightly, holding it for the rest of the journey. 

She didn’t look in the mirror again. 

They were greeted by a large ‘Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Alumni Night’ banner at the entrance to the conference centre at Solomon Kenmore. 

And a familiar voice welcomed them in. 

“Ethan. Dr Valentine, nice to see you. I didn’t know you were Hopkins alum?”

Tobias’s eyes hovered over Eve for a fraction longer than Ethan would have desired. 

“Eve’s here as my plus one, as you well know,” he said. 

Mischief glinted in Tobias’s eyes. 

“Guess I forgot. I’m solo tonight, although there’s plenty of people here to reacquaint myself with.”

“No, June then?” Eve said, with an innocent smile. 

Tobias laughed. 

“No, since I’m Dr Hirata’s boss now we’re keeping things professional. Ethan would know all about that.” 

He glanced at Eve pointedly. 

“Or not.” 

Eve saw raw anger flash on Ethan’s face. 

“Tobias…”

Carrick must have noticed it too. He ushered them through with a victorious smirk. 

“Have a good night guys.”

As they ventured into a hall decorated with blue and white balloons, Eve took Ethan’s hand. 

“He still knows how to mess with you, huh.” 

He flashed her a tight smile. 

“As long as that’s all that was. Come on, I’ll get you a drink.”

Twenty minutes later, Eve was still staring at the bar. 

A captivating blonde woman was propped at the corner, long platinum waves gracing her backless black dress as a band of young residents clung to her every word. She laughed again, tipping her head slightly, the sound silken like golden honey. 

She was the most flawless human being Eve had ever seen. 

And Ethan’s revelation of who she was clouding Eve’s mind. 

“That’s your ex-girlfriend? The girl you and Tobias both fell for is Aimee Berger? The Aimee Berger?”

“Is that a problem?” Ethan rolled up his sleeve casually, with little interest in the sight behind him. 

“She’s the best paediatrician in the country. I saw her speak at UCLA, she was inspiring. She’s basically my idol.”

“Should I be worried?” he said in a low voice. 

“What?” Eve watched the woman tilt her head with an enchanting smile as she laughed at one of her companions. 

“Didn’t you fall in love with your last idol?” Ethan was smirking widely now, an alluring mix of smug and flirtatious. 

Eve stared up at his darkened eyes, drinking him in for a moment before she replied. 

“Lucky for you, that is a one time only thing. And stop deflecting. I can’t believe you went out with her. She’s unbelievable.”

“And are you saying I’m not?”

“No,” he heard something in her voice he’d never heard before, “I’m not.”

He stared at her for a moment. Watched the breath move through her chest. The gentle rise and fall sustaining her was the most precious commodity in the room, the city, for him, the whole nation. 

In all the time he’d known her, Ethan had never seen Eve jealous.

People flirted with him all the time and she was the one who noticed and teased him. Apparently one of the nurses, the one called Sarah, had a longstanding crush on him, although he still didn’t understand why. 

He was sure she knew. She had to know, that it was her and only her that ran through his veins like wildfire and distorted his every thought. 

Life began at Eve. 

Everyone before then was practice. Not quite a mistake, but a sounding board to learn how to be better so he was right for her as much as she was for him. 

“Hey,” he said, resting his forehead against hers. 

She gazed up at him through dark lashes, soft vulnerability etched on her radiant face.

Half an hour later, the reunion was losing its charm. 

There were far too many people here Ethan wished to forget entirely, let alone be forced to share appetisers with. 

And as Eve shuffled closer to him, he was ready for her to tease him about yet another former classmate who had ventured over to gush over the great Dr Ramsey. 

Instead she whispered an utterly filthy proposition, something so wicked but typically Eve, that he couldn’t hold back the choked cough he let out. 

He stared back at her, a small smirk daring to cross his face when he thought of a suitably sinful reply. 

He was stopped from uttering it when he saw a figure in the distance. 

Plodding across the decorated hall and making a beeline straight for them. 

As the familiar face paused in front of him, Ethan was reminded that rain can fall from even the most cloudless sky. 

It took precisely a second for Eve’s smile to vanish and one more for her to dig her nails into Ethan’s shirt, in an involuntary cry for help.

“Dr Ramsey, Eve, hi.”

“Landry.”

Eve uttered his name in one helpless sigh and then gathered herself quickly, straightening up with a plastic smile. 

They managed a few minutes of polite small talk. 

But then Landry’s eyes widened as he looked at Ethan’s hand around Eve’s waist. His fingers were sitting right at her hip, casually and with an easy familiarity. She leaned into him, her silhouette melting into his. 

“Are you two doing the pretend dating thing?”

“What?” Ethan glared at Landry with so much force that Eve had to place a soft hand at his chest as she bit back a smile. 

Landry carried on awkwardly. 

“You know, where Eve fakes being your date because Dr Berger is here. She’s your ex isn’t she? Dr Carrick told me.”

Ethan couldn’t tell if Landry was trying to hurt Eve, to elicit some sort of childish jealousy, or whether he really was just that mind-numbingly stupid. At this point, he strongly suspected it was the later. 

He didn’t want to leave any doubt. 

“Eve and I are...”

She looked up at him, enchanting green eyes shining in awe. And then he watched a storm gather, a ripple of something soar and before he could finish his sentence, she’d interrupted. 

“That’s exactly what we’re doing. This...” she met Ethan’s gaze and ran a finger over his lapel enticingly slowly before turning back to Landry, “is all for show.”

Landry grinned appreciatively as Ethan shook his head, barely containing his disgust. 

“Right. Now if you’ll excuse us.” 

He swept past the worthless resident, his hand still tightly gripping Eve’s waist as he manoeuvred them to safety. 

“What the hell was that about?”

Eve grinned, a trace of guilt shimmering in her green eyes. 

“I don’t hate him. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be messed with a little.”

“Eve…”

“I don’t trust him, Ethan. He tried to take everything from me once. He doesn’t get to take you too.”

She said it fiercely, a small sliver of hurt burning in her eyes which betrayed her otherwise controlled demeanour. Whatever fragment of pain Landry’s actions had left, she’d buried it deep. 

And for a moment Ethan wondered if his own actions, if the months of waiting and pushing her away was something else that caused her a lingering hurt. 

If it was, he had to fix it. He could take no chances. 

“That’s impossible, I would never allow it happen.”

Her smile softened. 

“I know,” she whispered, fluttering her eyes shut as he traced the outline of her face with his hand. 

Another hour later, Eve found herself standing in a corner with Tobias, watching Ethan in the distance share a drink with the gorgeous blonde he dated all through med school. 

Really, it was her own fault. 

She’d practically forced him to talk to Aimee despite his protests. “Maybe you could get her to sign my book,” Eve had joked. “So you can go give it to Landry?” Ethan had retorted. 

And now he was actually over there, with the world’s most gorgeous paediatrician, while she was stuck here batting back jokes about boss/employee relationships from Carrick. 

Tobias’s voice broke her reverie. 

“She’s beautiful isn’t she.”

His tone was tender.

“Stunning. She has one of the best minds of her generation.” 

“So do you Valentine. You’re the only thing Ramsey sees.”

“What?” Eve turned to Tobias in surprise as he grinned back. 

“Look I’ve known Aimee a long time. Intimately. She’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, smart, funny. She’s sickening.”

He leaned closer to her, the softness still in his voice as he whispered. 

“He went out with her for years. Then dated the Harper Emery. Never seen him look at them the way he looks at you though.”

From the bar, Ethan glanced over at them curiously. 

It only made Tobias lean closer. 

“Look at the poor guy, he’s talking to her, but he’s looking over here. Probably thinks I’m hitting on you.” 

Eve leaned in, lowering her voice to an alluring whisper. 

“This your idea of a pep talk?”

“You look like you needed it, doc,” Tobias smirked. 

“Always knew you were a nice guy.”

“Keep it to yourself.” 

With a final wink, he walked off grinning. 

From his view at the bar, the way Tobias hovered by Eve unsettled Ethan. 

He was watching her closely, it was magnetic and involuntary, like always. He didn’t mean to stare and he certainly wasn’t jealous of Carrick. 

Except that he was. 

Tobias was standing next to Eve. Christ, he was actually leaning in to her, all while Ethan was stuck on the other side of the room, buried in a pointless conversation. 

Aimee was still talking about the new paeds wing at Chicago Mercy. She was so charismatic, any other sane doctor would have been desperate to hear more. 

And all the time, Ethan struggled to look away from Eve.

He thought about how she felt. 

Like rain-soaked roses on the first day of spring. The way the asphalt burnt beneath his palms at sunset back in Providence. Something spectacular amongst the ordinary. 

And Aimee noticed straight away. 

“I was sure you’d find her in the end,” she said, with a rich warmth in her tone. 

“Who?”

“Someone who interests you more than medicine.” 

Ethan turned back to her with a resigned smile. 

“I got lucky.” 

On the other side of the hall, Eve wasn’t left alone for long. 

She felt him before she saw him, recognising his footfall. Living with him gave her that unwanted familiarity. 

“How’s it going, Eve?”

“Hey Landry.”

It wasn’t that she hated him, she couldn’t hate anyone. But letting it go didn’t melt every fleck of anger. 

It just seemed horribly unfair that she had to make small talk with him.

“How’s the fake dating thing going? Do you think Ramsey wants to get back with his ex?”

She snapped up to look at him. 

“What?”

He gave her a friendly smile. It was so unattractive. 

“Well that’s why you’re here right, to make her jealous?”

She could tell by his tone that he was revelling in it. 

He suspected she liked Ethan during their intern year and accused her of getting preferential treatment. 

Now, with her feelings still so clearly painted on her face, even if he didn’t realise it, Landry was enjoying taunting her.

“Oh that.”

It was getting harder to pretend, even to Landry. It was wrong to deny what she and Ethan had. 

She felt lucky that Ethan had told everyone. If he hadn’t, she couldn’t have kept their secret much longer. Not when it meant this much. 

She stared ahead and her eyes locked on the only person she wanted to look at. 

Ethan was coming over. 

“Shall we get out of here?” he said, glancing at Landry briefly before he took Eve’s hand.

She smiled at him sweetly and he felt his heart race. 

“Thought you’d never ask.”

“I missed you,” he tried to whisper but it wasn’t quiet enough. 

“Oh right, still pretending.” Landry nodded smugly. 

Ethan attempted to ignore the anger rising in his chest. 

He walked two steps forward with Eve, before he turned back to the Kenmore resident. 

The illusion was becoming too much for him. His feelings for Eve had become tangled into his existence, as permanent as gravity. 

He’d overcome himself to be with her and to not have to pretend any further.

This former friend of hers, this worthless snake was not going to make him regress. 

His voice was low and firm. 

“No part of this is pretense Dr Olsen, I assure you of that. Eve and I are together.”

The satisfaction of the completely dumbstruck look on Landry’s face was nothing compared to the relief Ethan felt. 

Everything he knew felt real again. 

And the most precious thing of all was right in front of him. 

Eve glanced up at him in awe and reaching down, he kissed her temple softly. 

He had no intention of going further but her rosy lips reached up for his urgently and he clasped her closer as she met him in a lingering kiss.

As they broke apart she smiled up at him and, utterly entranced, the din of the gala around him melted into the ferocity of her gaze. 

Without another look at anyone else he laced his fingers through hers and led her through the hallway into the safe warmth of spring Boston air. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! @starrystarrytrouble on tumblr for more OH shenanigans. 
> 
> Note: I don't know why Landry was at Ethan’s med school reunion. Rats sneak in everywhere.


End file.
